Family of Del Boy, pictured with Gerry Hutch, knew the killer would be targeted in any of the Dublin jails

The notorious gangster — whose brother Gary was shot dead by the Kinahan mob in Spain in September 2015 — was moved after gardai received intelligence of a behind-bars plot to whack him.

Del Boy has been in protective custody since the murder of his taxi driver uncle Eddie Hutch, 59, last February.

He was attacked on at least two previous occasions by lags loyal to Christy ‘Dapper Don’ Kinahan’s mob.

But he will now spend the remainder of his time in ­Castlerea over concerns that the cartel’s associates at the Dublin lock-up were desperate to bump him off.

The bespectacled brute has also received assurances from other inmates — including republican prisoners — at his new jail that he will be protected.

But it’s understood that some of the Co Roscommon clink’s other lags are furious over the arrival of Gerry ‘The Monk’ Hutch’s nephew. A prison source said: “Del Boy has been moved to Castlerea for his own safety.

“The Kinahan gang have the resources to target anyone, so ­anyone remotely connected to the Hutch gang in jail is terrified at the moment.

“All that it takes is for some desperate drug addict to be offered a small amount of cash to stab a Hutch associate.

“The Prison Service are doing all that they can to protect those connected to the Hutch faction of the feud.”

Del Boy is due for release in 2025 after he was convicted of the manslaughter of Barry Maguire, 27, on St Stephen’s Day 2007. The 32-year-old is in jail for stabbing the victim to death following a house party in ­Ashbourne, Co Meath.

He killed Maguire and injured another lad, causing him serious harm, during the same incident.

Hutch was sent down for ten years for manslaughter, with the final four years suspended.

The thug, from the capital’s north inner city, had 39 previous convictions at the time, some of which related to gangland crime.

As well as the manslaughter sentence, he is also serving 16 years for his role in the attempted armed robbery of a cash-in-transit van in Lucan, Dublin, in 2009.

During the raid, Hutch’s pal Gareth Molloy, 28, was shot dead by detectives.

Del Boy’s brother Gary, 34, was shot dead in Mijas, Spain, in ­September 2014 on the orders of his one-time close associate Daniel Kinahan, 39.